By Reid Urban
Bryan Mitchell is making his case to be in the Padres rotation come 2019, and Monday night in SF was probably his best case yet.
Mitchell came close to securing his first shutout of the season, but settled for 8.2 innings of work as the Padres shut out the Giants 5-0 on Monday night at AT&T Park.
Despite the disappointing season as a whole for Mitchell, he has been pretty impressive in his last few games, and that could be enough for him to secure his place heading into next spring. He would still have to compete with a bunch of other starters for a spot in the rotation.
Despite that, though, he had some arm trouble, posting a 7.08 ERA before doing on the disabled list in early June with elbow impingement. Tonight was an example of Mitchell when he is great. He went after the strike zone and regularly threw 94-95 mph fastballs regularly in the later stages of the game.
The Padres were hoping for this when they acquired him from the Yankees last offseason. Though it didn’t work out at first, the long wait seems to be paying off.
